Gillingham (1) 4 Weston 21, McCammon 48, Barcham 55,
Miller 72 (pen)
Aldershot Town (1) 4 Lindegaard 20, Morgan 57, Bentley 61 (o.g.), Sandell 66
Att. 5,974
Entrance: Season Ticket
Programme: £3
Mileage: 45/5,414
Match Report
Oh my God, how do you make head or tail of this crazy football match? What was the underlying characteristic that produced this eight goal thriller? The poorest defensive display seen by Gillingham at Priestfield in many a day, although the Aldershot supporters must also have been going home asking themselves how they have scored four times away from home and failed to win. Or could it be that the inept display of referee Stuart Attwell, unbelievably eclipsed by the worst linesman in Mr P Cockup (actually his name was Kirkup) that I think I’ve ever seen, that was the contributing factor to this head spinner.Mr Attwell, it will be remembered was the referee that awarded the phantom goal to Watford earlier in the season and was fast-tracked as the bright young thing to the Premiership before suffering a equally rapid reversal back to the Football League. Up and down the country there are spectators that believe that reversal should continue all the way back to park football. If Attwell was bad, Kirkup just shouldn’t be allowed near a touchline because he is a danger to himself, turning the normally sedate Gordon Road folk into a seething mass.
Of Saturday’s nobbled two, Simon King failed to recover and Mark Bentley deputised. John Nutter was dropped to the bench to give a full debut to Arsenal loanee Rene Steer, and what a woeful debut it was. Steer was completely out of his depth, my neighbour remarked that he would predict that he would never wear a Arsenal shirt, I would predict that he never again wears a Gillingham shirt, he made Nutter look world class.
Manager Stimson’s other decision was to drop leading scorer Simeon Jackson to the bench giving Dennis Oli and Gary Mulligan the strikers role.
Gillingham made a bright start, but conceded the first goal on 20 minutes when a long cross to the far post was brilliantly headed back across the goal by Anthony Charles, which was in turn met by Andy Lindegaard who planted his header past Simon Royce. It was a well worked goal, Charles did especially well, but it was a portent of what was to ensue, Steer had given Davies time and space to cross and there was very little in terms of challenges for the two headers.
The home side quickly made amends, Andy Barcham who had a sparkling match and is back to his best, gave Dennis Oli a chance that was blocked, the ball fell to Adam Miller who fed Curtis Weston whose shot went underneath the keeper, who really should have done better, another sign of the madness to come.
The rest of the first half went along quietly if you can discount the bizarre decisions of Messrs Attwell and Kirkup, whose lack of speed on the line was compensated by his reasoning that he could make judgements from at least 20 yards behind the play and that the referee could make bad enough calls without his help.
Mark McCammon replaced Mulligan, who limped out of the first half and the enforced change paid instant dividends. The big striker met a Nicky Southall free kick to head home easily, far too comfortably if I was sitting with the Aldershot fans. This very respectable following for a Tuesday night was further disappointed in the 55th minute when Andy Barcham sped clear of the Aldershot defence, rounded the keeper to slot home. Barcham ran a long way with the ball and finished clinically, great stuff and the Gills are coasting. The next 11 minutes showed how wrong you can be.
In the next two minutes, Royce missed a cross by a country mile but was rescued, linesman Kirkup missed a offside decision, Royce missed another cross and from the resultant melee Marvin Morgan headed home. The madness had begun.
Four more minutes passed by and Mark Bentley, attempting to turn the ball behind for a corner, only managed to head into his own net and at the end of the nightmare period, Steer allowed Robinson the freedom of Priestfield to cross for Andy Sandell to score from close range. 3-1 up, 4-3 down and still the best part of half an hour of confusion to reign.
Gillingham’s equaliser didn’t take up much of the remaining time, six minutes later Adam Miller was brought down and got up to send the keeper the wrong way from the resultant penalty, a decision that Attwell seemed to get right.
Wild, tennis-like, predictions of 6-5, 7-6, 6-all finishes subsequently proved unfounded, although Andy Barcham once again raced clear only to be stopped in his tracks by keeper Alex McCarthy. What do we make of it in the cold light of the next day? It was entertaining, that’s for sure. It was comical in a twisted sort of way, but the hard facts are that Gillingham defended appallingly and were the makers of their own downfall. Positives can be taken from Barcham’s return to form and McCammon’s impact on his introduction. Ultimately Stimson was left with more questions than answers.
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